No. 825
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
August 20, 2025

Demi-Monde Excursion.

Members of the New Orleans Demi-Monde Enjoying an Excursion to the Suburbs of the Southern Metropoli
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August 20, 2025
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Tag: Burglary

"Burglar Proof" is all Buncombe.

These implements, with nitro-glycerine and a little horse sense, can open any safe - How the up-to-date burglar keeps a little ahead of the safe builder.

8/17/2021

Left His Digits as Souvenirs.

The Misses Franklin, of Glenn Falls, Conn., armed with pistol and axe, put a burglar to flight minus two fingers.

12/12/2016

“For Members Only.”

11/10/2014

Burglars on Bicycles.

Burglars in Massachusetts utilize the flying wheels in their midnight depredations.

12/31/2013

It Was a "She."

7/9/2013

Burglary Tools.

2/11/2013
CHARLES WILLIAMSON
alias: PERRINE
BANK OF ENGLAND FORGER

Newspaper Clipping of the Day

Via Newspapers.comA ghost that was, you might say, all things to all people was reported in the “Moncton Transcript,” February 1, 1922:London, Jan. 30-Eastbourne is being troubled, or entertained, by a "ghost" mystery.A strange apparition has been seen several times gliding along the Crumbles, near the fishermen's huts, and across Fishermen's Green. As the place is within 800 yards of the spot on
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Strange Company - 7/15/2026

Artifact #93: Soapy's son, hires attorney to stop the slurring of his father's name.

"As his son I am proud of hisefforts to succeed in life"Jefferson Randolph Smith IIIArtifact #93-2Jeff Smith collection(Click image to enlarge) oapy's son hires a legal firm to stop the defamation of his father's name. At age 30, Jefferson Randolph Smith III, Soapy and Mary's oldest son, was protecting his father's legacy and his mother's reputation from "libel" and scandal. He was also
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Soapy Smith's Soap Box - 10/13/2025
Amen.

The mystery of the First Avenue tenement that had its top four floors sheared off

The first things I noticed about 2029 First Avenue were the decorative lintels above the second floor windows. Attractively styled for window lintels on upper First Avenue, I figured this stubby holdout wedged beside two brick buildings between East 104th and 105th Streets must have been a former stable. I imagined that those roll-down window […]
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Ephemeral New York - 7/13/2026

1617: A miller of Manberna, the hangman’s last

Youth With Executioner by Nuremberg native Albrecht Dürer … although it’s dated to 1493, which was during a period of several years when Dürer worked abroad. November 13 [1617]. Burnt alive here a miller of Manberna, who however was lately … Continue reading →
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Executed Today - 11/13/2020

The Confession of Mary Cole.

The Confession of Mary Cole, 1813.Cornelius and Mary Cole lived in a farmhouse in Sussex County, New Jersey, with their two children and Mary’s widowed mother, Agnes Teaurs. Cornelius bought the property from Agnes in exchange for an annuity of $50 per year for the rest of her life. Mary and her husband did not live happily with Agnes. According to Mary, her mother was always very hard on her,
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Murder By Gaslight - 7/11/2026
On the Russians.

Countdown to the Crime

Join us on our Facebook page as we begin counting down the days to August 4th and all of the events leading up to the day. https://www.facebook.com/lizziebordenwarpsandwefts
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Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts - 7/7/2026

Convicts to Maryland, 1773 by Peter Dickson

  [Editor’s note: Guest writer, Peter Dickson, lives in West Sussex, England and has been working with microfilm copies of The Duncan Campbell Papers from the State Library of NSW, Sydney, Australia. The following are some of his analyses of what he has discovered from reading these papers. Dickson has contributed many transcriptions to the Jamaica […]
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Early American Crime - 2/7/2019
"Beaneries" | Garrotting.

Demi-Monde Excursion.

New Orleans Demi-Monde

Members of the New Orleans Demi-Monde Enjoying an Excursion to the Suburbs of the Southern Metropolis.

Some fifteen or twenty of the demi-monde of New Orleans recently took and excursion to the suburbs of the city. They charted a pair of four-horse coaches and supplied with wines and cigars, started off to enjoy a real good time. On arriving at a certain well-known hotel (?), which is situated about four miles from the city they alighted and ordered dinner, which was served in a sumptuous style. Having “wined and dined,” they returned to the city, singing gaily and cracking jokes by the way.

Reprinted from Weekly Varieties, February 22, 1887.

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